Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (38 page)

“You're Australian,
right?” Michael shook Tanner's hand and the two men discussed
Michael’s travels to Tanner's home land. Morgan leaned back
and tried to get her head together with the few moments that she had.
It was Angel who broke her from the needed quiet time.

“Sticky, I have something
to tell you. Uh... remember when you invited me here?” Morgan
gave him a wide eyed look, combined with a slow nod. “Well, I
thought it would be nice if I...well...got you and Finny Fin
together. So...I..”

“You didn't?!”
Morgan put her hands on Angel's shoulders and forced him to look at
her. Angel's attention was somewhere else, and she shook him
slightly to force eye contact. “Angel, please tell me that you
didn't invite..”

“Happy Birthday, Lass.”

“Fin.” She turned
her head upwards and saw the gorgeous Scot staring down at her from
behind her chair.

He put his large hands on her
shoulders and bent down, kissing her on the forehead gently. “And
Happy New Year, Love.” One more kiss, and he stood back up to
look for a seat. Not seeing one, he excused himself to try to find a
better table for everyone. She thought he said something about a
private table for the two of them, but hoped that he wasn't expecting
to have her all to himself. She, and the rest of the table, watched
him walk back through the crowd, then looked at her.

“I'm going to die,
Sticky! I'm dying! I'm dead! Look at me, I'm dead!” Angel's
eyes had found Finlay again, and he wasn't going to look away for
anything, not even for Morgan. “I'm still dead. He killed
me.” Angel was still rambling about how he needed mouth to
mouth from the the Scot, when another pair of hands were pulling her
from her seat.

She closed her eyes, knowing
that her nightmare was just about to get worse.
Who is this time?
Jack from Ohio? Did I invite him too? No..it's my third grade
teacher that I had a crush on. Maybe it's..
“Sean!”

“Holy Sheep! Have a
seat! Right...here!” Angel pointed to his lap and Sean
laughed as he pulled Morgan in for a bear hug that she couldn't
resist.

“Happy Birthday, Morgan.”
He kissed her cheek and hugged her for several more seconds before
allowing her to sit back down. He introduced himself to everyone at
the table, then said that he would help Finlay and that he would be
right back.

“I didn't make that
happen, but I'm glad someone did.” Angel followed Sean's jean
clad backside as he made his way through the crowd. Morgan wasn't
even going to ask, it was too late to fix it, so there was no reason
to find out how Sean had managed an invite as well. Angel could see
how confused and worried Morgan had become, and he quickly poured her
another glass of wine and handed it to her. “Just breathe,
baby.” He put the glass to her lips, and forced a small sip
before placing it back on the table. Morgan closed her eyes briefly,
then looked at Angel.

Angela and Kala had just
reached the table when Kole stood and knocked his chair down behind
him in the process. “Really?! If I had known this was going
to be a dicks are us party, I wouldn't have agreed to come here!”
His chest visibly moved up and down as he stared at each man at the
table, then glared in the direction of the bar where Finlay and Sean
still were. “What the fuck, Morgan? Why did you want us all
here? Do you think this is funny?” He glared at her, the
anger shooting from his eyes like hot daggers with her name on them.

“But I..I didn't...”
Morgan struggled with her words, but Kala was the one that
interrupted and tried to fix the situation.

“Easy, bro! Angela
invited us, remember?” He put his hand on Kole's back, then
picked up the chair from the floor and tried to get his brother to
sit down again. His brother, however, had no intentions of sitting.

“It's funny, huh? All of
us here, trying to get a few minutes with the all-important, Morgan!
Well I'm fucking done! First you come to Hawaii and you're there for
days before you even call me, then you stand up my whole family for
Christmas. How did you do that, by lying to everyone! Including me!
Then this shit? I'm fucking out of here!” Angel's mouth fell
open and his fingers clenched at his sides, even more so when he
watched tears fall from his best friend's eyes.

Kala tried to stop Kole from
leaving, but Kole couldn't be stopped. Angela and Kala apologized to
everyone for the outburst, and told Morgan that they would call her
in the morning. They followed Kole out, and left Morgan sitting at
the table crying, with all eyes on her. “I'm..sorry...I..”
She got up from the table and ran to the bathroom, leaving a very
livid Angel behind.

“Aw, hell no! It's not
going to be like that!” Angel also got up from the table, but
he walked in the opposite direction, following Kole to the outside of
the hotel. He had no idea that Michael had also had enough of the
hot tempered Kole, and he followed Angel outside.

Chapter Three

“
Wait the fuck up,
Woolly!” Angel didn't even wait for the automatic doors to
slowly open for him, he pushed right through and followed the trio
outside. He adjusted the collar of his deep purple blazer as he
stomped across the pavement and stopped Kole from lifting his arm to
hail a cab. “I said hold up!”

“Get the fuck off me!”
Kole flung his arm down hard to get Angel's hand off of him.

“Oh Boo, I don't know who
the hell you think you are, but you best apologize to that girl right
the fuck now!” Angel pointed back toward the hotel, but Kole
didn't look, nor did he budge.

“Angel, dude, we're just
gonna get out of here. C'mon, Kole...” Kala grabbed his
brother's arm, but Kole knocked his hand away too.

“No, you ain't going
anywhere until you apologize,” Angel reiterated.

“Apologize? Apologize???
Are you fucking serious? Don't you have ears? She lied. That's all
she does. I should have known. Lesson learned, don't fall for a
whore! Hear that everyone? You're a fucking whore, Morgan Holland!”
Kole ran his hands through his hair and turned away from the other
three people. His liquor had caught up to him and his adrenaline was
running strong. Kala backed away, his jaw dropped and Angela brought
her hands over her mouth and closed her eyes tightly to fight off the
tears.

Inside, the others had seen
Angel storm off, followed by Michael. Nobody had heard the
transaction between Kole and Morgan and nobody even knew where Morgan
was, but Kole's words had caught their attention. He made sure
everyone
at the bar
heard. Michael had been holding
back near the door, but with Kole's words, he was ready to fight.

Michael stormed after the
Hawaiian man, but Kala caught up to him before he could make contact
with Kole. Kala was able to hold him back for only a few seconds, but
it was enough time for Finlay, Sean and Tanner to make their way
outside.

“Don't you ever, EVER
fucking call her that!” Angel turned Kole around by his
shoulder and poked Kole in the chest with his finger. Angel had never
been in a fight in his life, but he felt like he would do anything
for his Sticky Buns. Kole narrowed his eyes and just as he opened his
mouth to speak, Angel interrupted again. “You know why she
didn't tell you why she was in Hawaii?” Kole clenched his fists
at his sides and his breathing was heavy.

Finlay and Sean heard that last
part as they walked out of the front doors and tried to stop Angel
from spilling the information about Carlos, but it was too late.
Angel had put it all together quickly. Morgan obviously didn't want
Kole to see her injuries, so she didn't tell him she was there. “She
didn't want YOU to see her! She did it for you, you motherfucking
piece of shit! She got beat up to fucking hell and back in Portugal
and she didn't want you to see her hurt!” Angel pushed him on
his shoulders, but Kole reacted before Angel's words had time to sink
in.

Kole pushed Angel back, but
with all his strength, and the small man flew backwards onto the
pavement. Finlay was in front of Kole in seconds, but so was Tanner.
They both took a swing at the drunk man at the same time, Tanner made
contact first and Kole fell to the ground in the same fashion as
Angel. In his fall, his legs swung out and knocked Tanner down as
well. Finlay wanted to get a hit of his own in, but hitting a man
while he was down was never his style. If he were to get up and
fight, that would be a different story. Instead, Finlay reached down
with two arms and pulled both Tanner and Angel to their feet.

Sean pulled Kala off of Michael
and he gave him a firm push backwards toward his fallen brother. Kole
was getting to his feet and Finlay was bracing himself for anything
that could happen. “What did you say?” Kole stood and
rubbed the blood from his nose away with the back of his hand.
Angel's words had finally registered with him. Angela stepped
forward, hoping to hear the story, but nobody was going to give her
one.

Finlay stepped forward again
and got less than an inch from Kole's face, making him take a step
back. In a low voice, he told him all that he needed to know. “Ye
will be leaving now and ye'll no' ever speak tae Morgan again.”

“Why should I fucking
leave?” Kole took another step back, but yelled so everyone
could hear him. When Finlay didn't answer, Kole went back to
face-to-face with him, braving the outcome. “I'm not going
anywhere.”

Finlay took a deep breath, one
that Kala caught onto. If he didn't step in, his brother was going to
get more than he bargained for. “Enough! Kole, let's go,”
he ordered and pulled on Kole's arm.

“Fine,” Kole turned
to leave, but before he was all the way around, he turned around
quickly to try to get a hit in on Finlay. Kole was stopped again by
Kala, and Finlay was pulled back by Sean.

“He's not even worth it,
mate. This is aboot Morgan, let's go inside,” Sean told him.
Finlay nodded, then bobbed his head toward the hotel door, urging
everyone to go back inside. They'd already ruined Morgan's birthday
enough, putting one of her clients in the hospital probably wouldn't
be a good thing at the moment. Angel, Michael, Sean and Tanner all
went back into the hotel, leaving the trio from Hawaii outside.

“Alright, bitches, act
natural,” Angel told the men as he sashayed across the hotel
lobby. “Princess doesn't need to know all that right now, got
me?” He stopped in front of them and turned around with his
hand on his hip, eying the men in front of him. When he got his
confirmatory nods, he went back to leading the group to the table.

Morgan was already sitting
there, holding a glass of wine to her lips when the men arrived. “Uh
oh,” she looked up to Angel, still teary-eyed. She didn't know
what they had been up to, but she was sure it had something to do
with Kole.
Why can't anything just go...right?

“Ain't no 'uh-oh', Sticky
Buns. We just went out for some air. Ain't that right boys?”
Angel looked to them with a raised eyebrow and the men nodded. Morgan
shook her head back and forth, but when Finlay smiled, she had to
smile too. She looked at each of the men; the men who had obviously
went out to take care of business. She hoped they hadn't hurt Kole
too badly, but she suddenly felt a bit better. She had her friends
with her, and that's all that mattered.

Her few moments alone had
brought feelings out that she could no longer ignore. Trying to care
about all of them, and trying to keep them apart, was turning out to
be far too much to handle. She had been honest with all of them, but
it was still uncomfortable. Feelings, those are the things that
always got her into trouble. By the time the men had rejoined her,
Morgan had her New Year's resolution in place, she would tone down
the feelings and focus more on her own life. They were wonderful
men, but if she continued down the same path, it was only going to
get worse. Morgan had no idea what the future held for her, or for
any of the men, but falling more and more for them was just a recipe
for disaster. She knew that her heart couldn't be turned off, but
with all of her power, she would try to stop it from taking on more
feelings.

“Well, in that case,”
Morgan finished off the last half of her wine and stood, wiping the
last of her tears away, “let's get this party started, shall
we?” She had a million questions, and she planned to grill
Angel later that night. The whole ordeal with Kole could have put
her in a crying fetal position if she let it, but with her friends
around her, it was easier to force herself to let it go and focus on
those around her.

“I'll get some more
drinks,” Tanner offered. “Finlay, what are you
drinking?” Morgan's jaw dropped at the question and she
couldn't stop the giggles.
Tanner asked Finlay what he wanted to
drink!
She had no idea what had happened outside, but it seemed
as if all five of the men had built some kind of unspoken bond out
there. Morgan watched Finlay, Sean and Tanner go up to the bar
together and Michael and Angel went to the end of the three tables to
remove the extra one. She watched the two men laugh and wondered what
they were talking about, but she also enjoyed looking at Michael a
little more than she should. He was sweet, gorgeous, and she knew
almost nothing about him.
I get weirder by the day. Is weirder a
word? Weirdyer? Weirdish? Weirdamoondo!
She laughed at her
childish thoughts, and the men smiled at her usual silly behavior.